Car washes utilizing cloth cleaning wheels and overhead curtains must periodically replace the cloth elements as they become worn. These cloth elements are typically attached to a power driven support structure, such as a cylindrical wheel of a rotary side wheel or an overhead support frame in the case of an oscillating curtain wash. An overhead curtain wash of this type is generally shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,866, Belanger, and a rotary side wheel of this general type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,028, Belanger. The replaceable cloth assemblies are attached to longitudinally extending channels formed in the apparatus support structure. The channels have an internal cavity provided with a narrow slot extending outwardly therefrom. The replaceable cloth assemblies longitudinally slide into the cavity and are provided with an enlarged marginal edge to prohibit removal of the fabric transversely through the slot.
The enlarged marginal edge of the fabric can be formed in a number of ways as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,028, FIGS. 3 and 4. An elongated key-hole shaped plastic welt can be sewn into the folded over flap formed in the marginal edge of the fabric sheet to form an enlarged generally cylindrical head. A problem associated with this type of replacement cloth assembly is that the fabric outer coating of the head swells when wet and becomes extremely difficult to remove when replacement is necessary. A replaceable cloth pack assembly shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,183, Belanger, utilizes a plastic head for directly cooperating with the elongated channel in the support member. These plastic heads extend transversely outboard of the channel and attach to a metal clip retaining a cloth pack assembly or in the case of FIG. 9, integrally form a clip designed to retain a pack of a series of overlapping fabric sheets. Replacement cloth assemblies of the type illustrated in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,183 patent, are difficult to assemble and are not suitable for supporting a single sheet of fabric.
In an effort to solve these problems, another manufacturer has recently begun to use a single sheet of fabric attached to a generally key-hole shape welt similar to member 138 as shown in FIG. 8 of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,183. A single sheet of fabric is sewn directly to the thin planar portion of the welt member. While this cloth assembly is easy to change, it is still very labor intensive to manufacture.